Patient monitoring systems are typically used to monitor physiological parameters of patients undergoing diagnostic or surgical procedures. A variety of patient monitoring systems have been employed for the sole purpose of monitoring a patient under the influence of analgesic or amnesic drugs that are administered during painful or anxiety-causing procedures. A monitoring system capable of accurately and reliably monitoring a patient as well as being easy to use is desired.
Unfortunately, known monitoring system suffer from several disadvantages. Monitoring systems in the related art fall generally into two categories: high end, multi-function monitors which collect a multitude of data and are typically used in the procedure, and smaller, limited function monitors which gather only basic physiological data that are typically used in pre-procedure and recovery areas. Inefficiencies occur when the patient must be disconnected from one monitoring system and then, once in the procedure room, connected to a more robust monitoring system that will provide additional critical information during a surgical procedure. The process of connecting and disconnecting multiple physiological data acquisition probes from the patient causes practice inefficiencies by adding time consuming activities, resulting in an overall lengthier medical or surgical procedure.
A patient care system that increases practice efficiency is needed in many patient care facilities. A patient care facility desires to maximize efficiency and perform as many cases as safely possible in a given day. Many patient care facilities find the largest obstacle to increasing practice efficiency relates to minimizing the amount of clinician time that is required in the procedure room. The number of cases a doctor may perform in a given day is limited in part to the amount of time the patient is in the procedure room. The amount of time required to complete a particular procedure is somewhat fixed and based upon the skill and experience level of the clinician. However, much can be done to improve upon clinic practice pre-procedure and post procedure.
Typically in a pre-procedure room, a nurse or technician prepares the patient for the upcoming procedure. This preparation may include connecting monitors to the patient for the purpose of obtaining baseline data to be used in the procedure. Monitors that are commonly used include blood pressure (systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure), and pulse oximetry, which measures a patient's arterial oxygen saturation and heart rate typically via an infrared diffusion sensor. Blood pressure readings are generally taken by a blood pressure cuff. A nurse or technician must secure the cuff around a patients arm and use a bulb type device to pump air into the cuff. Once the reading from the cuff stabilizes, the nurse or technician must manually record the data, usually handwritten on a sheet of paper, and save this information for later reference during the procedure and eventually, for the patient report. For the nurse or technician to take a pulse oximeter reading, he or she must boot up the pulse oximeter module, secure a pulse oximeter probe upon the patient and take a reading of the patient. This reading is also written down on paper to be saved for later use. Once it is determined the patient is ready for the procedure, the nurse or technician must disengage the blood pressure cuff and pulse oximetry probes from the patient, so the patient can be transported from the pre-procedure room to the procedure room.
After the patient enters the procedure room and before the procedure may begin, several tasks are needed to prepare the patient for the procedure. The nurse or technician must reconnect both blood pressure and, pulse oximetry before the procedure can begin. In addition to blood pressure and pulse oximetry other connections such as, for example, capnography, supplemental oxygen, and electrocardiogram are required. A great deal of time is required to connect the physiological monitors to the patient and to connect the physiological monitors to the monitoring system. The nurse or technician must spend time reconnecting physiological monitors that were connected to the patient in the pre-procedure room. The time it takes to make these connections occupies valuable procedure room time, thus decreasing practice efficiency. Clearly a need exists to minimize or eliminate these monitor connections and reconnections while their patient is in the procedure room.
Besides the time delays which may be encountered when adding sensors to the monitors, monitoring systems in the prior art leave much to be desired with respect to cable management. A large number of cables extend between the patient and the monitor. In the past there has been at least one cable for every parameter monitored. This array of cables and hoses interferes with the movement of personnel around the patient's bed. The greater the number of cables and hoses, the greater the risk that someone will accidentally disrupt one of them. In the course of a procedure, many people including nurses, technicians, and physicians must be able to move around the room and access the patient without, having to navigate around cables. This invention addresses cable management, by minimizing the number of cables between patient and monitor.
An additional focus of this invention is the use of fast acting analgesic or amnestic drugs to decrease the length of most procedures and the time needed to recover from procedures, thus increasing practice efficiency. Current solutions for providing patient relief from pain and anxiety require the use of drugs that require a relatively long time to take peak effect and, take a relatively long time for the effect to pass from patient. Physicians must wait for drugs to take full effect for the procedure to begin. The time spent waiting for the drug to take affect is wasted time that hinders practice efficiency. This invention provides means for safely and reliably delivering fast acting drugs in an effort to increase practice efficiency.
An additional focus of this invention is to automate several functions currently performed by clinicians to increase practice efficiency. In current practice, prior to IV drug delivery, nurses must manually purge the IV line of any air that may be trapped in the line before connecting the line to a patient. Failure to do so will result in harmful effect on the patient from air entering the patient's blood stream. The process of purging this line takes a significant amount of time and hinders practice efficiency. This invention provides means for automating the line purging process.